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Mar 2008

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Under your bed

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Originally Posted by Shoe

I do not see that though Pap. His mistakes are not him doing too much. It is simple mechanics. The mistakes he's making are those of someone who is overmatched at that level. Now obviously, Ben isn't overmatched at the NFL level, but I think he is struggling to adjust to clearly declining physical ability. That doesn't mean he can't be Ben at times, but his struggles mirror the road Brett Favre took after that string of MVPs he had. Brett became a turnover waiting to happen, making silly, foolish-looking TO's much like Ben is now.

What Brett did is finally learn to adapt his game, learning to get the ball out quicker, and he had that resurgence at the end of his career. Ben can too, but he has to learn. It took Favre a few years... hopefully doesn't take Ben that long to realize.

Except for the long one to Brown or Sanders I can't remember who was wide open, the balls Ben missed last night didn't need to be thrown more 12-15 yards, the offensive linemen are taking turns missing assignments and Ben can't even count on getting pressure from the same place when he drops back. The first thing he has to do is survey which of the linemen have missed a line call, blitz pickup, or just simply got beat, then he can begin going through the progressions. I'm not making excuses for him, but it is difficult to play quarterback when nothing is consistent including bad plays.

He also realizes at this point the success or failures of this team this year are going to ride on his shoulders. He clearly looked like a guy trying to make anything happen regardless of circumstance, there was never a thought of not trying to make a play, because the team was playing from behind all night. When you're losing and watching the clock tick away you begin to press and, IMO that's what happened. Ben felt like he had no choice but to make a throw even when a sack or incompletion may have been a better option.

Ben isn't on the decline yet, he's got plenty of football left in him, the team around him has been on the decline for a couple years and we're seeing the fruits of two completely failed drafts, retirement and age.

On a bright note, Polamalu was very, very good again last night, when he's healthy, he's an incredible football player.

Pappy

The referee said that you hit Brian Sipe too hard. Did you hit him too hard?
I hit him as hard as I could - Jack Lambert